


alright

by snaredrum



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: 'lena can't die from physical means' headcanon, based off a tumblr ask, not enough violence for an archive warning but lena does get shot with an arrow, she's fine though don't worry about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-27 00:38:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21109823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snaredrum/pseuds/snaredrum
Summary: "Through it all, Lena heard Dewey stop shouting and ask with confusion: 'Wait, why aren’t you screaming?'Webby looked at him, then back to Lena. Lena shrugged. 'It doesn’t hurt. Not anymore, at least.' She paused. 'That’s not normal, right?'"Turns out, shadows can't be harmed through mortal means. It would have been nice to know this before Lena got shot, though.





	alright

**Author's Note:**

> based off this anonymous ask i got on tumblr:
> 
> "So I was thinking about that ‘Lena can’t be killed by normal means’ headcanon and I had the thought that even SHE didn’t know she can’t be killed by normal means and they find out because Lena has a self sacrificing problem and probably like, pushed one of the kids away and got impales or something and the others are just HORRIFIED and Lena is just still before like, poking the thing trough her chest and is like ‘..okay either I’m in shock or this doesn’t actually hurt??”"
> 
> the title could be taken as a reference to lena's physical state, which is better than where i actually got it from (reading the lyrics to mike krol's song arrow in my heart, looking for puns, before realizing that a dramatic song lyric title wouldn't fit here)

This was why Lena hated adventuring.

Violet had been too caught up in deciphering the glyphs etched along the temple hall to watch out for traps. It happened in slow motion, though it couldn’t have taken more than a second: Lena heard the hiss of the pressure plate activating, ran to push Violet out of the way, heard a panel in the wall open up to her left, and turned to face it just in time to see an arrow pierce through her abdomen. It had entered just below where her heart would be; the force of it knocked her backward and now she was pinned against the wall behind her. It happened so quickly that the others didn’t even have time to cry out before it was done.

At first, her body flashed with some of the most intense pain she had ever felt. A strangled gasp escaped her, and she doubled over as far as she could when her chest couldn’t move, which admittedly wasn’t very far. But almost immediately the pain dulled down a sting, and then to nothing more than an uncomfortable pinching sensation in her front and back.

She touched the shaft of the arrow with her fingertip, and then time resumed as the rest of the world came rushing in. Dewey and Louie were screaming, Huey was tearing through the JWG, Violet was looking up at her from where she had fallen on the floor, fear and panic breaking through her normally expressionless facade, and Webby was at her side, tears streaming down her face.

“LENA! Are you okay, can you hear me, it’s going to be alright!” Webby shouted, her words rushing together. Violet jumped up, inspecting the arrow and snapping an “I know!” when Huey said not to take it out.

Through it all, Lena heard Dewey stop shouting and ask with confusion: “Wait, why aren’t you screaming?”

Webby looked at him, then back to Lena. Lena shrugged. “It doesn’t hurt. Not anymore, at least.” She paused. “That’s not normal, right?”

Huey pointed at a page of the JWG, as if she could see it from her angle. “You could be in shock. Your mind might not just be registering the pain because it happened so fast, or it could be too overwhelming...”

“I disagree,” Violet spoke up. She pointed at where the arrow went into Lena’s sweater. Tendrils of black were just creeping up the wood. “I believe that Lena’s magical physiology is more resilient than our own.”

“That makes sense, I guess. Like I can breathe and talk just fine, too, I feel like if this was actually hurting me then I wouldn’t be able to?”

Huey sputtered, but Lena elected to ignore him as Webby put her hand on Lena’s shoulder. “Do you trust me?” she asked.

“Of course,” Lena answered.

“Okay. Because I have an idea.”

And then she took out a knife and chopped off the end of the arrow, so the bit with the fletchings fell to the ground, then reached behind Lena, gently moved her forward a fraction of an inch, and did the same to the arrowhead, leaving it embedded in the wall.

Lena raised her eyebrow. “Pink, why’d you -“

She stopped when she felt an odd sensation, almost like a tugging. She looked down - the shaft of the arrow was slowly moving forward, pushing itself out of her chest (“ughhh, that’s so gross!” Dewey groaned), until it left fully and clattered to the ground. Lena tore off her sweater, and sure enough, there was no blood on her button up - just an inky dark stain that was growing smaller as the shadow rejoined her body. Soon, the shirt was completely clean, as if nothing had happened.

Lena broke the silence that followed. “How did you know it was going to do that?”

Webby fiddled with her hands. “Oh! I just figured that since it wasn’t actively hurting you, your body might just reject it? I didn’t really know for sure that would happen, but I hoped.”

Violet nodded. “A succinct line of reasoning. How do you feel now?”

Lena shrugged again. “Fine, really. But when we get home you can do all your little nerd tests if you want to.” She phrased it like a joke, but she could see the relief flash in Violet’s eyes - it would be a good way to assure her that Lena really was alright.

“Wait, you said earlier that it wasn’t hurting anymore. So it did hurt at first?” Huey asked.

“Yeah, when it first went in. It hurt like all get out and then just...completely went away.”

Louie walked up to her. “Maybe it’s just a surface level thing,” he suggested, and then pinched her arm.

“Ow! Dude, what the heck? I was just shot.”

He put his hands in his hoodie pocket. “Hey man, it makes sense. Nerves on the outside, shadow goop on the inside. You get hurt and boom, the goop takes over and fixes the problem.”

Webby hopped lightly up and down. “Oh, oh! You’re like a superhero! That’s so cool!”

Lena smiled at Webby’s enthusiasm, trying not to think too hard about ‘the shadow goop,’ as Louie had put it. “Hey, I’m just glad I didn’t die from some arrow. I deserve a blaze of glory.”

A voice echoed out from the other end of the hallway, and all their heads snapped in that direction as they heard Scrooge’s voice call out: “Kids! Where are you? I specifically told you not to go running off!”

With wide eyes, they looked at each other. “We don’t tell Uncle Scrooge until we get home and/or it’s most convenient?” Dewey posited.

“Agreed,” they all whispered. Dewey nodded, before calling out, “We’re all fine, Uncle Scrooge! We’re over here!”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! if you liked it i would very much appreciate any reviews, because this is my first ducktales fic! i wrote it really quickly though so if it's bad just blame that


End file.
